Raspberry Pi 3 or IPC?
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Greetings,
I'm building my own arcade cabinet. It's been a long slow journey, but it's almost ready for the control.I have a raspberry pi 3 that I have configured to play some Atari games, but recently rescued two IPCs from the dumpster.
The IPC specs:
• CPU Intel Atom 1.6 GHz (N270)
• Memory 1GB DDR2 SDRAM built-in
• Keyboard/Mouse 1 x PS/2
• Storage CF: 1 x front-accessible type I/II Compact Flash slot
HDD: 1 x built-in 2.5" SATA HDD/SSD bracket
• Display DB15 VGA connector, 1600 x 1200 @ 85 Hz
• Watchdog Timer Programmable 256 levels timer interval,
from 1 to 255 sec
• Expansion Slot 1 x Mini-PCIe
• Serial Ports 2 x RS-232
• Serial Ports 1 x RS-422/485 serial port
• Serial Port Speed 50 ~ 115.2 kbps
• LAN 2 x 10/100/1000 Base-T RJ-45 ports
(Built-in boot ROM in flash BIOS)
• USB Ports 4 x USB 2.0
• Audio 5.1 channel HD audioI fired it up and it currently has Windows 7 Professional SP1.
If I use the IPC I think (unless someone has suggestions) I would put Ubuntu on it and then RetroPie.
The ultimate goal is to play classic arcade games like Pacman, Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Dragon's Lair, Joust, etc.
Is the IPC beefy enough? Is Ubuntu/RetroPie the way to go? What about Mame?
Or is the Pi 3 the way to go?
Thanks in advance!
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I'm not sure what you mean by IPC, but it sounds like a PC. So having said that...
I have 4 full-sized cabinets running on small-form PC's and 3 portable Retropie units running on Pi3b+'s.
I will say this... if you plan on running any games emulated in consoles that are recent, use the a PC. The Pi3b+ can run up to Playstation and N64 consoles with fair to decent performance. Arcade games using MAME up to the mid-90's when they started using higher graphics like Ridge Racer, Daytona 500...etc will definitely choke. You should really look into using a Pi4 if that's the case, but again, I still find a PC runs everything with very little FPS hit as compared to a Pi unit. There is also the MAME version issues with the Pi. MAME on a Pi3/Pi4 has a few versions to work with, different games work with different versions.. etc. So you have to consider that. With a PC, if it's a recent model, just download the latest MAME version and the romset/CHD's for that version and pretty much off you go.
So the answer to you question all depends on what you want to run.
I stick to GameEx (not plugging them here) running MAME and Daphne for my PC driven cabinets.
RetroPie for any counter top, or portable units and stick with those for my console emulation/old skool arcade games. So far that's worked really well for me.Retropie is a fantastic front end for an emulator based unit, and arcade machine. But I find using PC's for arcade games just gives you more graphical horsepower and setting up extras like LED's, IPAC's, trackballs, etc. is just easier for me in a Windows environment.
Again... my opinion here. I've been doing this for 20+ years, but I'm NOT a cutting edge guy. So take what I say with a grain of salt.
Best,
JamR
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@jamrom2 AFAIK the CPU (Intel Atom 1.6 GHz (N270)) is a 32bit single core (with hyper-threating), I wouldn't be too sure which of the two has the better performance, but I am inclined to guess that it may well be the Pi 3 (Edit: Or at least they are not that much of a difference apart -> not sure what Hardware Aspects should be compared in regards to the various emulators).
@Dandelion In the End I would say, just check out both of 'em and see which system performs better on the games/emulators you are interested in. -
Thanks @jamrom2 and @Ashpool - I appreciate your help.
@jamrom2 - sorry, an IPC is an Industrial PC. It doesn't have any moving parts - the purpose being nothing can get jacked up from vibration, it's got a certain set of specs, etc.. The hard drive is solid state and there's no fan for heat - so it's in a metal case with fins
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@Dandelion having said that, if it's not a decent 64-bit Win10 set, then pass on it. Both CPU and GPU help with MAME, and of course memory. But what the exact best performance formula I don't know.
Again, depends on the game choices.
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The ultimate goal is to play classic arcade games like Pacman, Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Dragon's Lair, Joust, etc.
Is the IPC beefy enough? Is Ubuntu/RetroPie the way to go? What about Mame?
Or is the Pi 3 the way to go?
The fastest way to get up and running is to use the RPI3.
This is because there are binary packages for the RPI3 that can be installed.
The possibility to install these binary packages will definitely save you a lot of time.
Most, if not all games you mentioned will work ont the RPI3.Experimenting with such an IPC is nice.
RetroPie will probably work on it.
You can install RetroPie on top of ubuntu 20.04 and 20.10.
You have to know that ubuntu 21.04 or higher doesn't support 32 bit cpus anymore.You can install RetroPie on top of Debian 10/Buster.
And, when RetroPie will support it, Debian 11/Bullseye can also be used.
That's because Debian still supports 32 bit cpu's.
With Debian you can choose from many desktop environments.
I have the best experience with "mate".
Only thing you have to know with Debian, you have to add your user name to the /etc/sudoers file as root using "su".
Otherwise you can't use "sudo" in the commands which you have to use to install RetroPie.The IPC is probably a bit beefier than the RPI3 but the IPC has a disadvantage.
When you install RetroPie, everything has to be installed from source and that takes much more time.
It could mean that your installation time will be more than 4 hours with the regular packages.
I would suggest not to do the "basic install".
Just install the core-packages first and install the packages you really need from the "main packages", that will save you a lot of time.
I don't know how long it takes to install lr-fbneo, but I think it will be an acceptable duration.
I think you can use lr-fbneo for the most games you mentioned.Installing lr-mame,lr-mess and mame on the IPC is going to be somewhat problematic.
Installing these packages from source will use a lot of memory, which your IPC, obviously doesn't have.
So it will use your harddrive to create a swap area, which is very slow.
Such an installation, if it doesn't freeze, will probably take more than 24 hours to complete.
So you see, this will be the bottleneck.I have experimented a lot with PC's and there are also binaries around to install them, but you have to know where they are and how to install them.
The binaries are mostly for 64bit cpu's only.The MAME binary can always be installed from the OS repository though, but these are always old versions and you can't directly use it in RetroPie if you don't know how.
Hope you will have some more understanding now.
Edit :
I have a mini-laptop with the same specs as your IPC's.
I just installed lr-fbneo and it takes about 1,5 hour ;-).
As expected, pacman and dkong work pretty good.
Ubuntu desktop might be to heavy for your IPC's.
I would go for Debian with mate desktop. -
@Dandelion I agree with Folly. If you're sticking with Old Skool games, go with the Pi3b+. It's plenty to run those.
For any other lights, lighted buttons, or other stuff that might pull power from a USB on the Pi. Check if you can source power from something else. The Pi performance will degrade the more power you pull from it...even CPU fans.
Take your time designing and researching. It'll pay off
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